Some readers have been surprised at my opposition to the allied intervention in Libya, presuming that where the Americans go, there go I. That's usually a safe assessment.

It largely explains my support of the invasion of Iraq eight years ago, though not entirely: I backed the US -- wrongly, I confess -- because of my disdain for the professional anti-Americans in Irish life. Arguments cannot decently or rationally be sustained merely out of a dislike of those who oppose them.

The prime reason for the US invading Iraq remains: it was that Saddam was a permanent threat to peace and stability in the region, having created weapons of mass destruction, invaded all his neighbours, bombed them with ballistic missiles and used poison gas on his own people. He had to be toppled. The moral requirements of a just war also demand resources proportionate to the task. That is what the US failed to do. But the original decision to invade was based on a fair perception of US national interests.

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